Lucknow, Dec 29 (IANS) It’s not for the corporate sector this time. Students of the premier Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) will now apply their managerial skills to teach villagers sanitation and hygiene management.Working on ‘live projects’, IIM-L students will interact, motivate and convince villagers to adopt suitable sanitation and hygiene practices to raise their living standards.

“The project entitled ‘Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement’ (SHI) will be launched next week,” Dharmendra Singh Sengar, the IIM-L professor who conceptualised the project, told IANS Monday.

“As part of their social responsibility, our students decided to undertake the SHI project for villagers,” added Sengar, who is also the founder chairman of IIM-L’s committee for social initiatives.

According to committee members, the project would initially cover a rural population of nearly 400 in two villages adjoining the IIM-L campus.

“As we wanted to progress with SHI slowly but steadily, we decided to launch it for a limited rural population. Depending upon the feedback, we will re-formulate the project accordingly to extend it to other villages too,” Sengar said.

Apart from teaching hygiene and sanitation practices, IIM-L students will also maintain a record of health and integrated child development services required in a village, and later approach the government for follow-up action.

Additionally, the students will promote vaccination drives and hold health camps.

Aware that it will have to face several challenges, IIM-L has roped in several social activists for implementation of the project.

“Various social activists have shown an interest and approached us for becoming a part of the project. One such social worker who will assist us is Dr. B.N. Singh, who was formerly associated with Unesco and had also headed rural development projects undertaken by the state government,” Sengar said.